Crock Pot Tater Tot Casserole is one of my family’s favorite slow cooker meals! It’s loaded with ground beef and cheese and an easy way to please everyone at your table!

One thing you will notice with my freezer to crockpot meals and especially this Cheesy Crockpot Tater Tot Casserole is that they are easy to make last minute if you have the right ingredients on hand. I have quickly whipped this one up really for a potluck dinner after church and have baked it in the oven, but I LOVE throwing it in the slow cooker.

Can I Substitute Hash Browns for Tater Tots in Tater Tot Casserole?

Yes, that should work just fine. Since they’ll be a little more dense, you may need to decrease the amount of potatoes you add.

Do You Have to Freeze Crock Pot Tater Tot Casserole?

Because I specialize in Crockpot Freezer Meals, I love sharing how to make your recipes ready for the freezer, especially when it’s simple. It sure helps when you have a few of these easy meals thrown together in the freezer for you to pull from when your life is in chaos mode, like mine!

Where Did Tater Tot Casserole Come From?

We first heard of it and tried the recipe that was given to us from another large family. Since that time, several other large families have mentioned it’s a staple in their home as well. The recipe was passed around as an easy meal to serve that would stretch and feed many. We also saw that a famous reality TV show had shared the recipe as well.

After a little research, we discovered that tater tot casserole originates in the Upper Midwest region of the United States, where it remains popular to this day. Particularly in Minnesota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota.

How To Make Cheesy Crockpot Tater Tot Casserole Recipe with Ground Beef

Making tater tot casserole is pretty simple. I’ll quickly outline the steps, but feel free to jump down to the recipe below for more details:

Just a tip on freezing stuff for the crockpot. Store the ingredients in a round, plastic, container that fits inside the crockpot. When you are ready to use the ingredients just run the container, upside, down under hot water. Be sure the lid is tight so you don't get water inside and the contents don't fall out before you are ready for them.

Thanks for this post. My mother in law showed me how to make this delish meal a long time ago. It is a family favorite. We've not tried it in the crockpot yet. I used to freeze the browned beef and soup though. Just to help when kids were little and the first real cooking my girls learned was browing the beef for this dish. I'm really liking your site too.

I just stuck this in the CP for my daycare kids to enjoy. (I have 1 today LOL) – I’ll be eating it the rest of the week! Do you make it in a 6 qt? I put it in my 3-4 qt so used maybe 1/3 bag of tator tots…

made this but something must’ve gone wrong because there were no tots to be seen. I followed directions exactly as I do the first time with a new recipe, but this turned into a mash. The flavor was there and was good, but it looked like mush with green beans – you could not see a tater tot, altho you could taste them. What is wrong here?

Maybe try buying the extra crispy ones? Ours usually turns pretty mushy as well…..I think that's how it's supposed to be. If you prefer the tots to stay in tact, try buying the extra crispy ones or crisping them in the oven before you put them in the bottom of the pan.

I am considering trying this out for the children in my daycare for lunch. Do you think I could cook it on high for a lower amount of time? I really don’t want to be getting up at 5am to put it in the slow cooker. I have two who go to school and need to eat at 11:30.

I saw AFTER I had posted that you mention in you blog post that it can be cooked for three hours on high. I have a daughter with food allergies and can't use cream soup and made it with a homemade cream soup mix and it tasted GREAT! The kids loved it. Thanks for posting the recipe

WAS Looking for hamburger meat slow cookers and stumbled on to this page. It’s amazing! This Tater Tot Casserole brings back so many memories when I was a child and my mother made this. I don’t think she did it in a slow cooker because we wasn’t fortunate to have one so she used the oven. It always came out AMAZING. All of our families recipes from candies casseroles and pies etc were passed down to me. I’d love to share some of them as long as the other family members to make sure it’s ok first. If they do agree could you or someone on here help me get started!!! I’m only on fb. I don’t have any other app. Well I will definitely be trying this very soon

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Thank you so much! As a special needs mommy these recipes have helped us so much. I often am very busy with being a nurse for our child that I don't have time for making sure we get meals. This allows me to do all my prep on the weekends, while my husband is home to help, and to cook during the week. So grateful!

Linda SearsOwner of Freezer to Slow Cooker Menus

Sarah’s Freezer to Slow Cooker ebooks have been a fantastic addition to my meal plans. They make meal planning easy and my family happy. I love the way each recipe is laid out, with a shopping list and ingredient prep list, along with cooking instructions. Sarah’s done all the hard work for me! The recipes have used have all been delicious and easily adaptable to my family’s taste and the number of people I’m serving.

FranOwner of Freezer to Slow Cooker Ebooks

I purchased all of your freezer to slow cooker ebooks a month or so ago and I'm in love with this way of cooking. I now have taken all 10 weeks of recipes and written them of my menu planner and then I repeated the 10 weeks and will continue to do so throughout the year. My family of 5 adults and 1 child enjoy the meals that you have planned and I have cooked and I'm excited that the next time when that meal comes due up in the rotation I won't have to purchase anything but just pull it from the freezer. Thank you so much

A Happy Slow Cooker User

rayzn2angelsfrom Freezer to Slow Cooker Series

This makes my life so much easier. I'm a busy work at home/stay at home mom, wife, business woman and I feel like dinner is always the thing I just never get time to do. We have done like 15 of the crockpot recipes from Sarah and they are all very yummy. They get a thumbs up from my husband and kids every time. And there is always enough for my husband to take the left overs at least 2x per recipe. I have a family of 5, 2 adults, 21, 13, 16. So it makes plenty. Thank you Sarah.

Dawn S.Buyer of Freezer to Slow Cooker Ebook Series

I am a 59-year-old wife and mother of two grown children. I love your idea of fixing a lot of meals ahead of time and then pulling one out, put it in the crockpot, and you have dinner when you get home. I hate feeling rushed when I cook so Monday - Friday I use those crockpot meals and make enough that we have lunch the next day. I take Sunday afternoon, fix up what I need for the week (I don't have a lot of freezer space so I do a week's worth at a time) and I'm done with it! Saturdays I like to try new recipes from some of my cookbooks which I am finding I can freeze as well! So you have shown me a whole new way to organize my time and still put a healthy meal on the table. Thanks so much and I look forward to future blogs.